Digimon Tamers: The Colony
by DJsapien
Summary: At the start of the summer before University; Takato, Rika, and Henry return to the Digital World to rescue Jeri from the evil entity, Thanatos. The group finds a colony of trapped Tamers and realize that Jeri may not let them leave.AU
1. Chapter 1

Digimon Tamers: The Colony

Author's Note:

So I haven't really written a fanfic in a long time and this story is my third story overall and my first Digimon story.

I remember reading some scholars and journalists' writings about the cyberpunk genre and the influence that the Matrix had over future cyberpunk works. If you read any of the notes from the Tamers' writers, you would find that some of the show's concepts regarding artificial intelligence and cyberpunk's role in philosophy was inspired by the Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix" which in turn was partially inspired by the novel "Neuromancer".

Although I explore some of these concepts in my fanfic, I also attempted to use the concepts from "the Matrix" that the Digimon Tamers show did not touch upon. One notable thing about The Matrix was that despite its human characters who would frequently manipulate phenomena in a "virtual world", they were also refugees and lived with other human refugees in a post-apocalyptic, space western-type society, and so that is why my story also focuses on this "colony" concept.

Since Digimon Tamers was notable for having a darker tone than its predecessors (and the fact that I have lately been trying to get into "Neon Genesis Evangelion"), I attempted to make the story dark as well (I don't know if I have succeeded, but I hope so). I guess that this would be considered more of a deconstruction of the characters' motives and of the premise that the series created. I do warn you though; this story may turn out to be a long one. But it may just seem that way to me because this is the longest I have written for fanfiction.

If you actually read this author's note and ignored its extreme geekiness, than I thank you. I hope you enjoy this story!

….

Part I: Back to the Beginning

Chapter 1

Takato sat at his desk while staring out the window of his classroom. It was the last day of high school and all he could think about were two things: when was the next time he could talk to Jeri, and how he was going to spend the next few months before University classes began? He smiled once he realized that it was sort of a miracle that he was accepted anyway. He never really took his class work or his exams that seriously. Of course, he was more serious about school than say, his friend Kazu was, but it was still nothing compared to his best friend Henry Wong. Not a semester went by where Takato's parents would not constantly compare Takato's grades or exam scores to Henry's. It did not take Henry much effort to achieve in school, but when it came time for exams, he would guarantee his parents that he would study as much as possible. Takato suspected that Henry did this so that his parents would have no reason to limit his computing in his down time.

Takato admired his hazy reflection in the window. He had grown much in the past six years. His trademark goggles no longer rested on his head and he learned to focus his attention on more relevant things than digimon. He had accepted the fact that he would never see Guilmon again just as Henry and Rika had accepted the fact that their digimon would never return. Perhaps a few years ago, he would spend days in his room mourning, but he soon realized that there was no point in crying. He had a normal life now and he had grown accustomed to it.

"And now class, school is over. Have a good summer and make smart decisions."

The students stayed in class a little bit after the bell to fulfill their school's annual traditions for seniors to uphold; to thank their instructor for the year of instruction as well as handing out keep sakes to classmates."

"Here is your gift," said a girl who sat next to Takato, "And here is Jeri's gift. Please tell her that I said hello."

"Um. Sure," replied Takato hesitantly.

The eighteen year old stared at the two neatly wrapped boxes and thanked the girl for her kindness. He gave a gift to a student, thanked the teacher, and grabbed his book bag and left the class.

Outside of the school, Takato waited for Henry before they both left.

"Two gifts, Takato?" asked Henry in an impressed tone.

"Not all to myself. One is for Jeri."

Henry hesitated.

"Can I come to visit her the next time you go?"

"Sure," said Takato, "Visit anytime you like; she is your friend too."

Henry hesitated and then answered Takato in a matter-of-fact tone.

"That may be true, but she is your girlfriend. You should spend as much time alone with her as you can."

Takato held his head down and stared at the pebbles that he kicked while walking.

"It doesn't matter. It's not like she's going anywhere anytime soon."

Henry stopped walking and grabbed his companion's shoulder.

"Hey! Don't talk like that. She could get better, you know. You're talking about her like she's dead and buried."

Henry let go of Takato and the two teenagers continued walking.

"You're right I guess. How about this: we stop to pick up Rika at her school and we all go to see Jeri?"

"Sounds good."

…

Jeri sat in her hospital bed while she worked on her small project. With a blue marker, she was busy drawing the eyes on a sock that encased her hand. She knew that it did not really matter if she were to ever finish the puppet. The nurses were given explicit instructions to confiscate any objects that had "puppetry potential." This situation reminded her of a book that she read when she was younger. It was a book about a girl who had a strong attachment to her notebook. She would do every thing with that notebook; write down observations about others, quickly jot down ideas for stories and jokes. But one day, her parents and teachers began prohibiting her to keep a notebook. They said that it was a distraction from her studies.

Jeri flexed her hand to see how the eyes and mouth looked on the sock. Using the puppet, she began to imitate the voice of her doctor and her stepmother and her father.

_"Her verbal skills are poor. You should have alerted your practitioner about this fixation of hers. After what happened at her school, it is becoming quite clear why she feels the need to communicate to others through it."_

_ "But doctor, how were we supposed to know that this would cause her outburst at school? She is just a creative girl. She just expresses herself differently. She always did this even before the incident at school."_

_ "But this interest of hers surfaced after her mother's death, am I correct? I'm beginning to believe that something else happened to her to trigger the behavior. The death may have caused her to use this coping mechanism, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Whatever her condition is, it was definitely exacerbated by some traumatic event, and the trauma is what caused her to lash out in class. It is for her best interest to learn how to express herself without it."_

_ "But she was never this difficult! Then, something happened and she got worse. Her performance at school suffered. She would only talk to anyone outside of her family or friends with that puppet. Some days, she wouldn't even talk! I don't know what happened because she won't tell us anything. Even with the treatment, the school still won't take her back anyway. They say she is too much of a hazard for the other students. We are lucky that no one is pressing charges."_

"Ms. Katou," addressed a nurse. Jeri quickly hid the sock underneath her covers.

The woman entered the room with three other young people. "You have visitors."

Jeri exited the bed and walked up to Takato, Henry, and Rika to give them hugs. The nurse left the room.

"Great to see you guys! How was your last day of school?"

"It was great," said Takato, "Here is a gift that Sakura gave you."

"Oh, that's nice. Where are Kazu and Kenta?"

Takato began unwrapping his gift,

"Kazu left earlier today to begin work at his uncle's business in Kyoto. Kenta was accepted to a university in England, so he left yesterday so that he could have a few months to adjust to the new environment."

"Oh. Well what about you, Rika? How is everything going with Ryo?"

"Well," shrugged Rika, "this week must have been the week where everything decided to crash down on us three. Kazu and Kenta are gone and Ryo and I broke up yesterday."

"Oh wow." Exclaimed Jeri, "You guys were together for almost as long as Takato and I have been together."

"Yup. Sure have."

"Oh well," replied Jeri in a sing-song tone, "On the bright side, you won't have to put up with him. He was kind of arrogant."

Henry and Takato did a facepalm. For some reason, Jeri never quite grasped the concept of "inappropriate timing."

"Um…thank you?" said Rika awkwardly. She never really thought of Ryo as arrogant despite the fact that they had grown apart over the recent years.

Henry eyed Takato's gift and chuckled.

"I guess a couple of years ago, you would still be interested in that, huh, Takato?"

The teen stared at the gift. It was a small deck of Digimon cards wrapped in the trademark decorative foil.

"Yeah. After the whole D-Reaper thing, the preoccupation with the merchandise definitely faded. Not to mention the fact that it's not really a popular franchise anymore so I'm kind of surprised that they still sell these."

"Why do you think that she gave them to you?"

"We went to the same middle school and she always knew me as 'The Digimon Kid' because I was so obsessed. It was kind of a weird nickname, but it was sweet."

"I don't have to worry about this Sakura, do I?" asked Jeri possessively.

"Of course not." Laughed Takato, "She gave you a gift too. What is it?"

"It's a notebook!" shouted Jeri, "Isn't it cute?"

The three teens stood up and gathered their things.

"Its been a few hours," stated Takato, "We really have to get going, but I'll see you first thing next time."

"But, the hospital is closed to visitors tomorrow!" pouted Jeri pathetically, "I won't be able to see you until Monday."

"I know, Jeri. But I promise to be right with you first thing on Monday and the rest of the days of the week."

"That's right! It's summer vacation."

"Yup. That's right. I will be able to visit you a lot more okay?"

Jeri hugged him and watched as the trio left the hospital room.

….

The three teens were hanging out in Henry's room. Takato played a game of Digimon cards with Rika while Henry sat at his computer.

"Ha! I won." Shouted Takato, "I, Takato Matsuki have beaten the digimon queen herself, Rika Nonaka at a card game!"

"Do you know how incredibly dorky that sounds?" chided Rika, "You should have been able to beat me with no problem at all. I haven't played in years. I'm just rusty is all."

Takato began to admire Rika just as he had been admiring himself earlier that day in school. She had grown into a much more social person, albeit, while still being somewhat reserved. As usual, she was wearing her hair down and was adjusting to wearing more fashionable clothes. Years ago, she compromised with her mom that she did not want to enter into the modeling business like her mother, however every once in a while, she would take fashion advice from her.

"Whatever," chirruped Takato, "Hey Henry, what are you doing?"

Henry was busy writing script for a program on his desktop. After a short pause he realized that someone had just said something to him.

"I'm sorry. You asked what I was doing?"

Takato nodded. Henry was quite an obsessive person. It was pretty easy for him to lose sense of his surroundings once he became engrossed in a project. Knowing this fact, Takato began to suspect that Henry momentarily forgot that Takato and Rika were in the room this whole time.

"Well, you know how Terriermon entered this world from the Digimon computer game?"

Takato and Rika both nodded. It was a very strange method of arrival, but then again, nothing was quite normal about Guilmon's or Renamon's appearances either.

"Well, I sort of found the source code for the game and the D-power. Right now, I'm trying to create another program by using these as references. Ideally, my program would act as a sort of search engine for the Digiworld."

"That sounds like a pretty difficult task." Stated Takato.

"It is, but my D-power was pretty helpful. I figured that it had some sort of signature for Terriermon and I plan on using that in the search fields."

Takato and Rika noticed the D-power on Henry's desk and walked over to it. It had a cable linked to its output slot and was connected to Henry's computer. Flashes of blue code streaked the white screen.

"Yours actually works?" asked Rika, "Ever since we came back from the digiworld, ours can only get a screen of static and snow."

"So did mine…at first. But once I started tinkering with it, I could use my computer to navigate its code. The D-power had a sort of block on its interface so I can only use its functions through plugging in commands on my desktop."

"How long did that take?" asked Rika inquisitively.

"Umm…four days." answered Henry. "For the first two days, I sort of forgot to eat. Haha. I was that busy."

Henry tapped his computer screen. His eyes lowered as they focused on the ominous lines of commands and code.

"They're out there. I know it."

…..

Guilmon's ears flared in the darkness of the jungle. He focused his senses on the sounds of an echoing place.

"We're almost there," shouted Guilmon, "I can hear it."

The rest of the digimon followed him through the jungle. It began to rain and the group agreed that the echoing sound that was heard was most likely a nearby cave. Eventually they entered the grotto and Guilmon used pyro sphere to make a fire.

"Is everyone here?" asked Renamon.

Guilmon, Terriermon, Calumon, Impmon, MarineAngemon, Monodramon, and Gaurdromon were all present.

"Good thing we finally digivolved out of those pathetic In-Training forms," sneered Impmon, "With Calumon being a normal digimon and all, it's a lot harder to digivolve than I thought it would be."

"I'm sure if we had our tamers then it would have been a little bit easier." chimed in Renamon.

Impmon shrugged at the suggestion, "Eh. We don't need the humans. We're fine the way we are."

"You don't really mean it, do you, Impmon?" asked Guilmon. His golden eyes began to water once he remembered that he may be spending the rest of his digital life without Takato.

"Sure I do, DinoBoy. We're doin' just fine. All we have to do now is keep fighting and I will some day make it back to the form I was always meant to be: Beelzemon."

"You're unbelievable!" berated Terriermon.

The cave was silent. All of the Digimon focused their attention on the small long eared creature. Impmon arose from his position and stalked over to where the bold digimon was sitting.

"You wanna say that again, you little prick?"

Terriermon stood up and slapped Impmon across the face.

"It was your idea that we start fighting wild digimon to get stronger! You acted like you wanted us to digivolve so we could protect ourselves. You said it would be in our best interest! But all you care about is turning into Beelzemon. It's because of you that Lopmon got killed in that battle. We were only In-trainings and you manipulated us into fighting a champion level."

Impmon rubbed his cheek and growled menacingly.

"I didn't _manipulate_ anybody. I told you that we needed to fight a champion so that way we could get more data from them than we would have if they were a rookie or an in-training. In the Digiworld, everybody has a choice. You either don't fight and you die or you fight and get stronger. The only way you can get stronger is by getting their data. The only way to get their data is by killing. That's the way it works. Your weak tamer may have told you otherwise, but his ideas aren't exactly the way the world works. His human world and our digital world are the same in that respect."

Terriermon dug his heels into the ground.

"Don't you dare talk about Henry!"

Around the room, the digimon were shocked at what they saw.

"Guys, stop!" shouted Guilmon, "this isn't helping."

"He's right," affirmed Renamon, "You need to stop this."

Impmon ignored the both of them and ran up to Terriermon. He jabbed the dog creature in the stomach and pinned him to the ground.

"Now that I have your attention," spat Impmon, "Learn this lesson. I may have liked humans once, but the more time that I spent here, the more that I realized something: humans are worthless. They are creatures that are not worth the souls that they possess. Humans like your tamer spout nice little ideals about peace and unity and all that stuff, but in reality, they're nothin' but a bunch of hypocrites. They talk about how digimon are so savage and I am such a horrible creature for fighting, but guess what? They _made _us this way. Now I don't know about you, but what type of 'enlightened species' preach all that crap, but then create a world where we are expected to fight and kill for their amusement so they can make money off of it?"

"Stop it!" shouted Terriermon, "Henry didn't know!"

Renamon had stepped in and grabbed Impmon from atop of the smaller creature. In her arms, Impmon still continued his diatribe.

"Oh. 'Henwee didn't know!' That's no excuse. Even if they thought we were just a bunch of sprites on a computer screen fighting in a simulation, they should have KNOWN how wrong it is! Even if they didn't know we were real, their attitude says enough about them. The whole time we were on Earth, I just took everything in and I noticed a few things. If peace was such a huge priority for them, then why were those humans always at war? If we weren't meant to fight, then how come they created us and this entire place just to entertain their kiddies with fighting? They are no better than us because they created us to mirror what they want and what they always struggle for: power and superiority. Now since their rules apply here, you can make a choice to not kill and see how well that goes for you, alright?"

Tears streamed from Terriermon's eyes as he sat his back towards the wall of the cave. He could not leave and expect to survive on his own. He may have been angry with Impmon, but he tried to calm down and think rationally about the situation.

"I think it's time that we tried to sleep," said Gaurdromon.

And without any further arguments, the band of digimon fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

While Terriermon slept, he kept revisiting the day that Lopmon was killed. He realized that the fateful day might stay with him for a long time.

_ "There's one!," shouted Yaamon, Impmon's In-training form, "A champion level. I think that we can take it!"_

_The digimon all crept behind a large boulder while eyeing an Apemon sleeping in a tree._

_ "Ok," began Yaamon, "Viximon, do you think that you can distract him?"_

_ "Sure I can," said the fox in-Training cheerfully. Her tail playfully brushed up against Yaamon's cheek as she leapt in front of the Apemon's tree._

"_Everyone knows what they're doing?"_

"_Wait," shouted Kokomon, Lopmon's in-Training form, "You have me with the others blowing Bubble blast at him."_

"_So?" whispered an exasperated Yaamon. He turned his direction towards Apemon and hoped that Viximon did not blow their strategy._

"'_So'", I'm not ready to be on the offensive just yet. Let me be the distraction and let Viximon be the offensive."_

"_I agree." Piped Terriermon, "She's not ready yet."_

_Yaamon shook his ears in disapproval._

_ "You don't understand. I did it this way because Viximon is a lot stronger than you already. You need more fighting experience than her so she won't be overwhelmingly stronger than you. This way, after we digivolve from this fight, we won't have to solely rely on her and I on protection because everyone's strength will be a little more equally distributed. If you really don't wanna follow my orders, then you can just sit back with Calumon and let us all do all the work."_

_Viximon had awoken Apemon and he was now chasing her. Terriermon's form, Gummymon as well as Gaurdromon and MarineAngemon's In-training form had now stepped in to fight alongside Gigimon. Viximon had returned to the boulder._

_ "You okay?" asked Yaamon concernedly._

_ "Yes….I'm…just really tired. Whew."_

_Kokomon saw Viximon's condition and felt guilty. It seemed that everyone was doing his or her part except for her. She saw that the rest of the digimon were still having trouble defeating the much larger Apemon and reconsidered her choice. She leapt in front of the others and jumped ontop of Apemon._

_ "Wait!" shouted Yaamon, "Don't do that! Keep your distance. Shoot with Bubble Blow!"_

_But it was too late. Before Kokomon could process the demand, she was hit over the head wit Apemon's bone and fell to the ground. Apemon's blow proved to be his last as he began to dissolve into data. All of the digimon were finally able to absorb the beast digimon's data._

_ "Nice try, Lopmon, but you shouldn't have done that." Shouted a newly digivolved Terriermon. He gasped once he saw Kokomon's limp body on the ground._

_ "Kokomon, no! This….this shouldn't have happened!"_

_The digimon crowded around Kokomon's pulsating body before she finally dissolved into data. Impmon stood in front of her body and was about to absorb it before Terriermon tackled him to the ground._

_ "Don't you dare, you pig! Leave her data alone!"_

_Impmon rolled over on top of Terriermon and switched his attention to the free- floating data that disbanded into the air._

_ "You don't care about her!" shrieked Terriermon. Tears raced down his cheeks while he laid underneath Impmon. "You never cared about her! That's why you told her to do something she wasn't ready for. I wouldn't be surprised if this whole time, you planned on her dying so that you could take her data!"_

_ "Are you delusional, you little runt? That's not what happened. I'm sorry your friend is gone, but we have to keep going forward. There's nothing more we can do so you better just stop crying like a baby and stop holding everyone else up."  
_

…_._

Terriermon awoke to find sunlight permeating the fissure. Monodramon, Gaurdromon and MarineAngemon were walking past him to the entrance of the cave.

"Where are you going?" asked Terriermon.

This awoke the other digimon in the cave and they were just as curious as Terriermon was.

"Yeah guys," said Guilmon, "Why are you leaving us?"

"Well, we realized that there is no point in us sticking together since the Tamers aren't coming back so we kind of decided that it was our time to leave. Besides, it's getting kind of tense between all of us here and I guess you could say the Lopmon's death has made us a little bit nihilistic is all." Gaurdromon meant for the last sentence to be a sort of joke, but the dark humor fell rather flat among his audience of exhausted and borderline depressed monsters.

Impmon huffed and laughed at the statement, "Yeah right. More like you had been planning this the whole time and decided to bide your time until we could help you digivolve."

"Did Impmon suddenly get smarter in the past few years?" asked a bewildered MarineAngemon.

"Hey!"

"Shush, MarineAngemon. Well, we had been planning it for a while, but we still recognize that there is a tense atmosphere, so yes and no."

Renamon sat in her corner of the cave. She had a feeling that once Lopmon died, there would be less morale among the other digimon.

"If you two really believe that this is the best thing to do, then you can leave."

Calumon had just awoken from his slumber to hear Renamon say this. He retracted his ears as he shuffled over to MarineAngemon.

"Is she telling the truth, guys? Are you really leaving us?"

"Goodbye guys. Don't forget about us."

With those last words, Gaurdromon and MarineAngemon left the cave and headed towards the jungle.

"I guess it's just us now." Pouted Guilmon. He slouched on the ground and laid his head down with a resounding thud.

Renamon sat still and wrapped her arms around her knees. She traced her eyes over the cracks in the ground.

"Yes Guilmon. I guess it is just the five of us now."

….

It was the late afternoon when Impmon decided to step outside of the cave for some fresh air. In a nearby tree, he met Renamon sitting on its branch.

"What are you up to Foxface?"

"I told you not to call me that, remember?"

Renamon did not even turn around to meet his gaze.

Impmon drew a line on the dirt with his clawed foot.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, Toots."

"Don't call me that either." spat the fox digimon with thinning patience. "Anyway, what are you planning for us next, O fearless leader?"

Impmon's eyes transformed into slits at the last phrase of hers.

"Are you…making fun of me?"

Renamon turned to see his frustrated visage, but then continued to stare at the strange sky above them.

"Why? It's not like you have any feelings to hurt in case I were making fun of you."

Impmon clenched his small fists and pounded on the tree that she was sitting in.

"How can you even say that?" he pleaded in a hushed tone, "You know I got feelings for ya, babe."

Unaffected, Renamon continued to stare at the sky without so much as changing her expression.

"After what you did to Terriermon last night, I would be surprised to learn that you had any feelings at all. How could you say those things to him? How could you hit him like that?"

"You of all people should know that what I said was right. You of all people should know what it's like to be constantly reminded that you were created for one purpose only. Besides, what happened with me and Terriermon got nothin' to do with what's going on between us."

Renamon jumped down from the tree branch and landed in the grass. She looked Impmon in the eye and crossed her arms.

"Is there something between us?" she asked teasingly.

Impmon smiled mischieviously.

"When I finally digivolve to Beelzemon, you won't ever have to ask that question again."

Renamon was caught off guard by Impmon's quip. She began to blush.

"What…what do you mean by that?"

Impmon's small fangs protruded through his sly smile.

"Come on, babe. Whenever I was in that form, you could never keep your eyes off of me. You loved it."

"Is that reason alone why you are obsessed with returning to it?"

"That among other things." Impmon began to lose focus. A strange sight caught his attention in his peripheral vision.

Hiding in the bushes watching the whole exchange was a Numemon loudly sucking from the bendy straw inside of a soda bottle.

"Hey!" shouted Impmon, "What the?"

The green sludge digimon immediately took off but was pounced upon by Renamon.

"Aah!" it screamed, "Okay, I'm sorry. I just have this habit of spying on people. Come on…It's not that weird, is it?"

"That's not why we're stoppin' ya." Declared Impmon.

Both Renamon and the Numemon were puzzled. It was not the reason after all?

"What I want to know," demanded Impmon, "is where the hell did you get that soda?"

Impmon pointed at the soda and the Numemon struggled to breathe underneath Renamon's grasp.

"Oh, this? Well…uh."

"You better start talkin' freak." Impmon snapped his left hand and a fire ball initiated. He grinned menacingly at the slimy digimon.

"Okay, okay. I got it from that Tamer Colony."

"Tamer…Colony?" repeated Renamon quizzically, "What in the gods is that?"

"You don't know about it? Oh, it's a really weird place. It's a protected city just north of here that the spirits of the Digital world created. It started out with just a few tamers living there because they couldn't find a way back home. But then a whole bunch started showin' up. Now it seems like every couple of months, new tamers start appearing and living there. A few years ago, it was a ghost town, but now due to a lot of the tamers sticking around and with new ones comin' in all the time, it just keeps growing."

"That…is strange," stated Renamon in a confused tone, "Why would such a place exist? Why would humans be stuck here?"

"Well…" the Numemon became very nervous and he began to sweat throughout all of his many pores.

"Well…if I tell you something, will you please let me go?"

"That depends on what you tell us." Said Impmon while flashing his flaming hand in front of the Numemon. The green creature began to sweat even more so and finally snapped.

"Alright! Alright! There is a rumor goin' around that Thanatos is back, okay. That's all I know, really! All I know about the Tamer Colony are what the kid who gave this to me told me. She wouldn't even tell me if the rumors about Thanatos are true."

Renamon opened her arms and the Numemon shot out of her grasp to race across the floor of the jungle. The slime ball would definitely think twice before indulging in one of his voyeuristic habits again.

"Thanks for loosening your grip, you know!" howled Impmon sarcastically.

"I don't think that he knew anything more about the Tamer Colony." replied Renamon, "Although I wish that we would have probed him more about Thanatos."

"I agree," said Impmon as he picked up the Numemon's dropped soda. He then realized that the bottle was covered in mucus so he chucked the bottle into a nearby bush. "It would have been nice if he told us who Thanatos is."

"No, you don't understand," answered Renamon. She was now looking into Impmon's face with worry. "I know who Thanos is, but I am fearful as to why there are rumors saying he has arisen."

Impmon noticed the sky changing to twilight.

"We should head back to the cave and tell the others about what we heard." He said cautiously.

Renamon jumped into a nearby tree and cocked her ear to the wind.

"In the meantime, we should be quiet about what we say. If Thanatos has arisen, then there are sure to be spies among us."

…

In the cave, the three remaining digimon moped and slouched. It seemed that each of the young monsters had something to cogitate. Terriermon was sitting with his head faced towards the ground, his eyes staring at the dirt and rocks while his mind replayed Lopmon's tragedy from years ago. Calumon sat staring vacantly at the fire, wondering if the death of Lopmon as well as the feud between Terriermon and Impmon was the result of him no longer being granted the responsibility of digivolution catalyst. Guilmon was busy drawing a picture with a stick of himself and Renamon on the cave's floor. For years he had suspected that Renamon and Impmon were in a relationship and that he himself had no chance. What was it about Impmon that she liked, anyway? Well…she definitely seemed to be fascinated by his Beelzemon form, but why? Was he more deficient than Impmon in some way?

Perhaps another question that bothered Guilmon was why was Guilmon so attracted to Renamon? Why not, say, Lopmon. She expressed a female gender, somewhat, and they were both digimon, but for some reason, he never found her or many other digimon that they have come across to be quite attractive. For years Guilmon had thought about the reason for the appeal. The red dinosaur lifted his gaze as his brain began piecing things together. Despite being a fox, Renamon was definitely more human-like than most other digimon. So was Beelzemon. Was this quality the one that made them so attractive?

Guilmon shook his head. Well that could not have been right. Impmon hated humans. But then again, Impmon hated humans yet he was so obsessed about becoming Beelzemon. Sure, the little guy was power hungry, there was no doubt about that. But even for a digimon, he seemed to be more obsessed about digivolution than most. If Guilmon was correct, that their human-ness made them somehow more attractive to each other as well as to other digimon, then what did that say about him, or about digimon in general?

"T-terriermon," stammered Guilmon uneasily.

"Yes Guilmon?"

"Do you think that it's possible for someone to be attracted to something that isn't what they are supposed to be?"

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"Well…" Guilmon thought about what he was trying to say. It was a pretty abstract concept and he probably did not know what he was talking about at all. Even he knew that he was not always the brightest of the Digiworld.

"I guess what I mean is…do you think that even though Impmon does not like humans, that he can still have good feelings about them and bad feelings about digimon?"

Terriermon wrinkled his muzzle as he thought about the concept.

"I don't think I know what you are really saying. Could you be a little more specific?"

Guilmon fiddled with his claws.

"I guess that I'm not really sure how to say it…"

At that moment, Impmon and Renamon had returned from their stroll. Renamon announced what they had discovered from the Numemon and they gathered together to listen to her recount the story of how she first heard about Thanatos.

"Do any of you remember the Nursery?" asked Renamon.

"Oh, the Primary Village? The one on the tv show with all the nice toys?" asked Terriermon excitedly.

"Well. The real Primary Village is a little bit different from that. It was a place in the digiworld with many nests dispersed throughout fields upon fields for almost as far as the eye can see. You see, after digimon mate, they have to arrive at the Nursery at the right moment so that the data for their digi eggs can be purged from them. The eggs are then raised in the many nests by the digi-gnomes and in some cases, they are transported by the digi-gnomes to their tamers. In some cases, if the timing needs to be just right, digimon are kept in the Nursery until they are rookie level before their tamers can take them. All of the other digimon who were never assigned a tamer were raised until they became in-Trainings. At that point, they are taken from the Nursery and forced to defend themselves in the digiworld. I had not been assigned a tamer then, so I was one of the digimon who were released with the other feral digimon."

"Oh," shouted an excited Terriermon, "I think I remember one time I was there. I was just a baby, but I think I remember something about it. A rookie level was one of the helpers for the digignomes because their tamer wasn't ready for them yet."

"I remember too," added Impmon, "I remember the first time I saw a digivolution. It was a Botamon that had just digivolved into a Koromon. Once it was done, it was put to sleep by a bunch of digignomes and it was carried away. I always wondered why it happened, but I couldn't talk then, so I could never ask."

Guilmon pouted.

"Takatomon made me, so…I never been to the Nursery."

"Anyway," continued Renamon, "I remember listening to two helper digimon talking about Thanatos."

"_Why are all of the functions of the Nursery stopping? Just one day without datacycles puts us months behind!"_

"_I'll tell you why. It's because a demi-god called Thanatos materialized in the memorial lands near us and it started resurrecting all of the dead data."_

"_What? That's impossible! Once a digimon dies, its data is gone forever! How could it resurrect it?"_

"_When digimon data is deleted, its never deleted permanently. Even when the Digiworld dumps its memory every once in a while, the digital residue of a digimon stays behind."_

"_Like a footprint?"_

"_More like a placeholder. A space in this world that tells our gods what was there and what will always be. You see, as a demi-god, Thanatos was created to assist in the deletion of digimon who have strayed too far away from their purpose."_

"_What is its purpose?"_

_"Who knows? Only the gods know at this point."_

"_Well if the gods know how to handle things, then why are we interfering when they decide to resurrect dead digimon?"_

"_Why? Well it's because Thanatos has rebelled against __**his**__ original purpose. Would one of the main gods ever call for the reanimation of a digimon? No! They were dead for a purpose!"_

"_I'm not sure if I'm buying this."_

"_What happened yesterday was proof."_

"_How?"_

"_Thanatos has many digimon on his side throughout the digiworld. There are even specific cults dedicated to him. Just yesterday, a group of rogue digimon that we had to scare away from the Nursery were invoking his name and saying that he will arrive in this area. And of course, he did!" _

"Thanatos destroyed large amounts of land near the Nursery then, but we all assumed that he had disappeared. I was the only one who overheard what those two said, so no one from my litter really knew or remembered what happened. I didn't really make much since of the whole conversation until I was old enough to let it sink in. But now, guys," concluded Renamon, "Thanatos may be back and we should be careful with how we travel."

Impmon bursted into a fit of laughter before composing himself.

"Okay kiddies. Now that storytime is over, we can now discuss the Tamer Colony thing."

"What?" asked Renamon irritably, "Are you saying that they are unrelated?"

"I don't care if they are related," began Impmon, "I'm just saying that if there is a Tamer Colony, then we should probably stop by there."

"Why?" asked Calumon, "You hate humans!"

"Oh, I know why!" exclaimed Guilmon, "He thinks that Ai or Mako might be some of the kids stuck there!"

Impmon's face turned beet red.

"Okay, that is not true. I don't give a damn about those brats!"

"It's ok if that's why you want to go," squeaked Calumon, "Maybe the rest of your tamers are there too?"

Impmon crossed his arms in anger.

"Well, maybe I do want to check up on them." He whispered sheepishly.

Renamon walked to the edge of the cave and reclined.

"How about we leave first thing tomorrow, then?"

The rest of the digimon relaxed and tried to sleep. But one red dragon stayed awake as he was still bothered by his questions from earlier.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Takato put on his shoes and grabbed his backpack. It was 9:00 am and visiting hours for Monday began at 10:00 am.

"Bye, Mom and Dad. I have to visit Jeri now, okay?"

A barrage of customers were mercilessly swamping his parents.

"Um. Son," said his father hesitantly as he rolled out dough and began cutting them into strips, "we really wish that you told us this last night. We told you for weeks that we were having our big pastry sale today."

"But I told Jeri that I would visit her first thing this morning."

"I don't care. We really need your help right now. It will only take you a couple of hours."

A couple of hours? Takato groaned and walked back behind the counter to put on a smock and help his parents with baking and sales.

…..

It was 9:00 Jeri was sitting at the table of an evaluation room. The table was littered with a variety of testing paraphernalia that reflected which types of questions she was asked; "what is the difference between these two pictures?" "how would you move the shapes to match the picture?" "What are the meanings of these words?" "What are the relationships between these items?" "If I show you this picture, how much of it can you remember?" "How do you think the girl in this photograph felt when it was taken?" "Here are different smiley faces. Which emotions do they signal?" "Can you repeat back to me any of the words or numbers that I gave you?"

As the test progressed, Jeri became less interested. It was most of the same questions that were given to her when she was first committed to the hospital.

"Jeri?" asked the female doctor clad in a white labcoat., "Could you please answer these questions?"

At the beginning of the examination, Jeri was cooperative and open. At this point however, she would only hang her head low and wait for the practitioner give up.

"Okay Jeri. Let's stop the test for a while. You seem to like to tell stories. Why don't you tell me one?"

Jeri lifted her head and whispered.

"Could I tell you the story in a different way?"

"You mean like with a puppet? Normally, I would say, "sure, go ahead." But I think that your parents would prefer that you tell me by speaking. I've heard that you are quite the talker with your friends. How come you feel like you can't tell me what happened to you? I have been seeing you for the last few years."

Jeri bit her lip and gritted her teeth. She wanted the doctor to give up and let her go home. But of course, she knew that by not answering her questions, she would only prolong her visit. With her head still bowed and without giving the woman eye contact, she told a story.

"One day, a little girl got a kitty for her birthday. She was excited because all of her classmates had puppies and kittens, but she was the last one to get one. She thought that she would never get one, but luckily, she did. Over the next few days, she realized that she loved the kitty and she liked to play with him and tell everyone how proud she was to have him. But then, not long after she got him, a mad dog killed him. The dog tore him to pieces right before her very eyes. She still has nightmares about it and sometimes she can't pay attention in class because she keeps thinking about it."

This strange story appeared to pique the doctor's interest.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, you never had any pets, Jeri. Can you tell me what this story is really about?"

Jeri clenched her left wrist underneath the table. _"Jeri? What are you doing? Wha…"_. As Jeri silently remembered what happened in class that day, her nails gripped her skin even tighter.

"It's…just a story, you know. You said for me to tell a story."

"Jeri, I know that something traumatic must have happened to you. You've been here for years. Now is the time to help us find out what your problem is so that we can help you."

Silence permeated the evaluation room. The eighteen year old bit her lip and lowered her head even further.

"Okay, Jeri. How about we get you back to your room? We can continue your reevaluation another time."

"Does that mean that I can go home now?" Tears streaked down Jeri's cheeks. She suppressed a sob in her throat as she silently pleaded with the doctor to release her to her parents.

"I'm sorry, Jeri. What it means is that we have to finish another time. I can't tell you for sure if you can go home after it, but for now you should just go back to your room and contain yourself. Don't you have a visitor coming?"

"I…guess." a nurse greeted Jeri and walked with her back to her room.

…

"No! Why isn't it here? They took it, didn't they?" the tortured girl was screaming as she erraticaly searched her room for her sock puppet. She had overturned various furniture and books in the process.

Jeri sat at her bedside and sobbed. She wished that she had never been brought to the mental hospital in the first place. She wished that what transpired those years ago were just a bad dream.

…_._

_It was a Tuesday afternoon and Jeri was fighting to stay awake in class. She had been getting less than an hour of sleep every night for the past two weeks. No matter how hard she tried, every time she tried to sleep, the horrible memories of Leomon's death would haunt her._

_ "Jeri," a girl next to Jeri tapped her on the shoulder, "Jeri, the teacher is asking you a question."_

_At this time, it seemed that Jeri was reliving Leomon's death every few seconds. She would see him, and the he would die. See him. Die. See him. Die. See him. Die._

_ "Jeri, you really need to….wha?Aahh!"_

_The entire classroom turned their heads to train their gaze on the horrific sight. Jeri had pinned her classmate to the ground and had a pen's tip buried into her shoulder. The cap remained on the pen's point, so it did not make too deep of a puncture. Despite this, the girl's shoulder was still furiously bleeding from the attack._

_Once she realized what she had done, the distraught sixteen year old leapt off of the girl and extended a hand._

_ "Oh my God! I'm….I'm so sorry!" Jeri looked around the room to find the open mouths of her classmates. The teacher, remembering her training, had grabbed the room's telephone to call school security._

_ "What have you done!" screamed a nearby boy, "Guys, we have to help her, Yuki is a hemophiliac!"_

…_._

Takato watched the clock at his parents' bakery. It was now 11:15 and he still needed to create the custard for their store's specialty confection. While stirring the custard, he let his mind wander to that fateful day when Jeri was apprehended.

_While in the custody of two police officers, Jeri walked solemnly out of the school in handcuffs. Her body trembled vigorously, as she attempted to comprehend what had just happened to her._

_On the third floor of the building, Takato as well as his entire class was watching through the windows to get a glimpse of the attacker. Takato clenched his fists and left the room to gather his composure in the hallway. Just minutes before, he received a text from numerous people relaying rumors that his girlfriend, Jeri Katou, was the assailant. When the first text from Henry came in, he did not want to believe such an extreme accusation. But once more messages poured in from Kenta, Kazu, and other concerned students which flooded his inbox, he realized that all of these stories could not be coincidental. It took the boy awhile to realize that this incident was most likely the consequence of Leomon's death._

Once Takato realized that Jeri was sentenced to therapy and treatment rather than prison, he was beyond relieved. But he could not help feeling immense guilt. Jeri was one of the last of the kids to get their digimon, and she was the only one of them to have their partner die.

"Takato!" the teen's father shouted. "Pay attention!"

Takato jolted once he realized that he had stirred to custard for far too long and the pastries that he was supposed to remove from the oven were beginning to burn.

"Aww, man."

….

The troubled eighteen-year-old girl laid on her bed without even bothering to wipe away the tears the rolled down her face. She was about to drift off to sleep until she felt a furry claw wipe away a tear.

_"Is it him? NO! I've imagined him too many times. I have to let him go!"_

"Jeri? It's me. Don't you remember?"

The girl opened her eyes and gasped at the sight. Lo and behold, Leomon was crouching over her bedside.

"Leomon!" she held the lion's mane close and cried tears of joy. "But how is this possible? Y-you…I saw you die!"

The lion digimon escaped her embrace and pointed to a dark purple vortex opening from the window.

"If you come with me back to the digital world, I can show you how this is possible."

Jeri grabbed onto Leomon's arm in an attempt to stop him.

"No! I won't let you leave me again. I let you die on me once, but I won't let you die in that dangerous place."

"But Jeri, I didn't die in the digiworld. I died here; in a place that is supposed to be safer."

The frustrated teen bit her lip once she realized that he was right.

"It's not fair, Leomon!"

Leomon's face took upon a more grave expression.

"You're right, Jeri. It isn't fair. It isn't fair that I died before the others. But you know something, we aren't the only ones who have realized the great injustice committed against us. Thanatos has arisen and he is the one who resurrected me from the dead."

Jeri walked closer to Leomon while still eyeing the vortex in confusion.

"Who's Thanatos?"

Leomon smilled.

"Thanatos is a mighty force who has been unleashed upon the digital world. His power is great and his allies are legion. He gave me specific instructions to retrieve you in hopes that you will aide us in our cause. With him as ruler of the digital world, all will be made right again."

Jeri furrowed her brows and walked closer to him.

"You're right, Leomon. Something about the digital world needs to change, and we can be the ones responsible for it."

Leomon took her hand in his and they walked into the spiraling vortex before them.

….

Henry opened his father's laptop and connected its cables to his family's big screen television set. Henry was in the living room of his family's apartment and had just finished the search program that morning. While his father was in his home office doing work, Henry thought it would be interesting to see if a wider monitor such as his large screen TV would be helpful in visualizing the script. After debugging the small text code for the past few days, he was afraid that he would lose his vision.

Once he saw the output of his father's desktop on the TV screen, he opened the program and typed in the ID signatures of Terriermon, Guilmon, and Renamon in the appropriate fields. After telling Rika and Takato of his plan on Friday, they both delivered their D-powers to him to see if he could crack them and search for their digimon as well.

Henry ran the program and waited for results. After five minutes, nothing seemed to change on the screen. The enterprising teen gave the program another five minutes. Still nothing.

"Oh well. I guess it's back to the drawing board." Henry's shoulders sagged dejectedly. There was nothing like working for weeks at a time only to find out that despite intensive double checking, the problem may have been that there was nothing to even suggest that the operation was possible in the first place.

Henry looked up to face the TV to see if anything changed. To his surprised, he noticed a thin white sock-like appendage with green tips.

"Terriermon?"

A low muffle that sounded like "Henry?" was heard in what sounded like inside of the television. Henry looked upon in awe as the dog digimon emerged his full head out of the screen.

"Henry! I found you!"

Terriermon was pushed out of the screen with Renamon following behind him. The fox creature was linked to Terriermon with their paws, and Impmon's arms was linked to her's. Attached to Impmon's arm was Guilmon's distinctive red claw. Although the other digimon had made it out of the portal, Impmon still had his arm stuck inside the screen.

"Hey, you big goof!" yelled Impmon furiously, "What's takin' ya?"

Guilmon peaked his head through the monitor and flailed what arm that he had out there.

"I can't get all of myself in!"

Henry sighed as he saw the digimon back in the real world again. His shock at seeing them had finally worn off.

"It's a widescreen, Guilmon," said Henry supportively, "Just lie on your side and crawl out."

Guilmon did as he was told and soon enough, he fell onto the floor with a thud.

"Henry, what in the wo—," Janyu Wong had left his office and found his son with the long-lost digital monsters.

"They're…they're back?"

"Yeah…" moaned Guilmon languidly, "we're back…and I need bread."

"I need to hug Henry!" shouted Terriermon as was already encasing Henry's head with his parachute-like ears.

"I need a bath," groaned Renamon irritably.

"I'll take a bath with Renamon." proposed Impmon in a mock-helpful tone.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:**

**Hello, this is DJsapien just wondering if there are any characterization or continuity concerns that I should know about? I honestly haven't seen the show in a long time, although I am constantly jogging my memory with in-depth reviews and summaries. **

**If anyone would like to contribute any constructive criticism, please do so. This story is different from what I normally do and I would hate to write myself into a corner (I've tried to prevent this by writing multiple chapters ahead of time and by constantly proofreading them, but there is only so much I can do alone). In other words…..**

**Please, feel free to review!**

….

Chapter 4

Takato ran down the hallways of the hospital. It was now 12:35 and he was much later than he had intended. Outside of Jeri's room, however, were police officers and Jeri's father and stepmother.

"_No_." the teen whispered.

…..

Rika brushed her hair in front of her mirror and frowned. She had never noticed before that she still had a photo of Ryo left, tucked in the corner of her mirror. She sighed as she picked it off of the frame and mused about its depiction of them at a mall. She folded the photograph and put it in a stationary box. She still needed to become acclimated at being single again but she was not too bothered by the breakup. They had a good run and she felt like they were growing apart anyway.

_BRZZZZZZT!BRZZZZZZZT!_

Rika's phone vibrated on her bed. She walked over to the device and answered.

"Takato? Are you okay? Just calm down; what are you trying to say?"

Takato was running out of Jeri's hospital, bumping into people in the process.

"Jeri's missing, Rika! No one can find her anywhere and….she's just not well, okay!"

"I thought she was getting better?"

"Well apparently not! I told Henry and he said that it's really important for us to meet him at his home. He didn't say why, but meet me there, okay?"

Takato abruptly hung up, leaving a worried Rika to quickly grab her purse and leave the house.

…

Panting, Takato and Rika met in front of the door to Henry's apartment. They knocked on the door and Henry opened it while gesturing that they needed to be quiet. The trio walked into Henry's living room to find their digimon, resting underneath blankets.

Takato and Rika ecstatically hugged their digimon. It had been so long since they had last seen each other. The reunion was interrupted by a now teenaged Suzie entering the room and hugging Terriermon closely. But then, her smile faded as she realized that Lopmon was not among them.

"I'm sorry Suzie," apologized Terriermon soberly, "She was killed in battle."

The older teens attempted to comfort Suzie. They were not about to have another case like Jeri's.

"I'm fine, guys." Suzie sobbed., "Just please leave me be."

Despite Henry's pleas, Suzie left to mourn Lopmon in her bedroom. In the hallway, she managed to dodge Janyu, who had outstretched his arms to comfort her. Hurt by her rejection, Janyu entered the room.

"So guys. Apart from…what happened to Lopmon, what else happened in the digital world?"

Impmon took a step forward towards Janyu. His eyes lit up as he remembered what happened to them.

"You humans ain't gonna believe what we found out."

….

_After a little more than a day of travel, the digimon finally came upon an ominous looking gate. The gate and its high walls wrapped encased a city of old-looking buildings._

_ "What are we going to do, now?" asked Calumon. _

_ "We probably should ask first. I don't know if anyone is nearby," said Renamon._

_Terriermon and Guilmon perked their ears._

_ "I hear humans!" Said the two in unison. _

_Terriermon inflated his ears and flew up to a crenellation of the wall. He finally sighted the humans and sat still to overhear their conversation._

_Inside a watchtower at the top of the gate, two humans and their digimon rested in the shade._

_ "Today's a pretty slow day, huh Noah?" asked a small black boy of eight with his back leaning against the wall. His Patamon snored lightly as the small creature attempted to rest in the heat. _

_ "Yeah, Izzy. It's beginning to look like it." The older boy confirmed. He was about sixteen with dark hair and a lanky figure. His Veemon began to cough once it drank the last of their water in a canteen._

_ "Noah." Craoked the blue dragon, "it's too hot, we need something to drink."_

_ "Alright Veemon. Izzy, Veemon and I are going to get some water. Do you and Patamon want some soda?"_

_The young boy's eyes grew wide with puzzlement._

_ "But Noah. Anything other than water is strictly on rations. They rarely hand them over just like that."  
_

_The sixteen year old smiled._

_ "You've been a really patient guard this week. Not only are you the youngest guard, but you obeyed all orders and prevented intruders from coming into the colony. Your brother would be proud of you, and I think that he would be more than happy for me to get you something special."_

_ "Wow, thanks Noah."_

_Once the older boy and his digimon exited the watchtower, the green floppy-eared digimon crept onto the ledge of the window._

_ "Hello."_

_Izzy and his Patamon immediately jumped to attention. _

_ "You are an intruder! Leave the wall, now!"_

_ "Woah." Terriermon raised his paws defensively, "I don't want any trouble. I'm traveling with other digimon and we are trying to find our tamers here. Could you please just open the gates and let us in?"_

_Izzy looked out of the window to find the group of digimon waiting below. Still wary of the visitor, Izzy answered as calmly, but still as defensively as he could._

_ "Even if your story is true, we still couldn't let you in because it isn't safe. What we could do is give everyone in the colony a warning about you guys so that anyone with missing partners would claim to know you, but that could take a long time."_

_ "Are you tellin' us to wait, you little brat?" screamed Impmon furiously, "Why the hell can't you just let us in?"_

_Not taking kindly to being yelled at, Izzy screamed back at Impmon in a matching tone, much to Calumon and Terriermon's amusement._

_ "Because, you short…purple…bad-attitude-having…thing! We are in a time of crisis! Thanatos and his guys have attacked us too many times. It's even worse now that he keeps sending Leomon to get us!"_

_The group looked in shock._

_ "Did he…did he just say Leomon?" asked Renamon in confusion._

_ "Naw, you must be hearing things, babe," said Impmon confidently, "You and I both know that Leomon's dead. He probably said 'Biyomon'. 'Biyomon' attacked them."_

_ "Does that even make sense?" asked the fox digimon crossly. In all of her years, she had never heard of small, pink, bird digimon being serious threats. _

_ "It doesn't really make sense for it to be Leomon, either." chimed in Guilmon confusedly._

_ "Did anyone ask you, Dino-wha—?" before Impmon could finish, dark pools began engulfing the digimon, knee-high._

_ "What is this?" asked Terriermon, "I…I feel so weird."_

_As soon as Terriermon said this, his body began pulsating as if his data were about to dissipate. A resonant laughter became louder once all of the bodies of the digimon pulsated. Outside of the pools was Leomon, the lion digimon they used to know from years ago._

_ "Leomon?" shouted Guilmon in confusion, "Why are you still alive? And why are you doing this to us?"_

_The lion digimon simply indulged himself in a hearty laugh as he took more steps towards the frightened Calumon and Terriermon. He picked up the two digimon in each of his arms and chuckled._

_ "Well, wouldn't you guys like to know. Fair enough. I have been selected, if you will by the great Thanatos. You see, Thanatos loaned me some of his powers in exchange for me becoming his loyal servant."_

_Leomon dropped the two digimon and left the pool of darkness that engulfed them. Instead, the muscular creature stepped towards the gates of the colony where the young boy was desperately calling out to nearby gaurds for backup._

_ "Don't worry, child." cooed Leomon in a mocking tone, "You do not have to worry about me invading this time. I'm just going to let this dark vortex absorb these creatures' data while I retrieve my long lost tamer. Hopefully I reach her in time and persuade her to join Thanatos before she becomes yet another pitiful human trapped in this place. Unlike you pathetic twerps, I want to give my Jeri a choice…something the Digiworld's current god will not allow for you fools."_

_And with that, Leomon opened another vortex with his strong claws and jumped into it, leaving the remaining digimon in shock._

_Renamon twitched her muscles and attempted to call out to her friends but all that she could manage was a soft whimper. The vortex had now sucked them waist down into the abyss. Renamon knew that once her body was completely enveloped by the vortex, then her data would completely dissolve and she would be no more. Tired, she lolled her head to her side lifelessly._

_ "I can't" she thought, "It's all over for us...goodbye Rika. I hope that you continue to grow up without us." _

_Hours later, all of the digimon's bodies were consumed by the darkness except for the tips of their snouts. Terriermon's mind had drifted away to happier times with Henry and Suzie until he felt a tight tugging on his ear. Before long, he began hearing Henry's voice._

_ "No!" thought Terriermon, "I need to stop pretending. We are doomed. I'm just….I'm just never going to see Henry again."_

_ "Terriermon! It's you!" but that sounded louder than before. Could it really be him? Before long, the lop eared monster began directing his ear in the direction of the sound and with the last breath of his muzzle centimeters above the pool of darkness, he shouted to the other digimon._

_ "Grab onto me, guys! I'm getting us out of here!"_

…..

"If you hadn't made that program," started Terriermon, "Then we wouldn't have been removed from that vortex. We would've all been goners!"

The lop-eared digimon grabbed onto Henry's face in a stronger embrace.

"And now I'm never letting you go, Henry!"

The rest of the tamers were still puzzled by the story. Rika trembled once she pieced together the strange tale.

"But, Leomon…..he was resurrected by Thanatos. And that's why Jeri is missing? What are we going to do, now?"

Takato sat listlessly on Henry's couch as Impmon and the other digimon recounted their story. Even Guilmon's soft lick could not snap him out of his daze.

"It makes sense," whispered Takato softly, "She was going to stay in that hospital longer, and now she finds a way out…with Leomon. She's not going to want to come back. This is what she wants and she won't want us to save her….but…..its not safe there…..we have to at least try."

Takato finally snapped out of his hazy state and began dialing numbers on his cell phone.

"What are you doing?" asked Rika

"Calling my parents to meet me here so that I can say goodbye. The digimon came here through that program, and Guilmon and I are going out that way. I wouldn't blame you guys if you didn't want to come with me to rescue her, but Guilmon and I are doing this."

"Oh no you don't" snapped Henry, "My biggest regret is that we didn't get Jeri the help she needed soon enough. I am definitely coming to save her."

The boys turned around to find Rika already dialing her phone and telling her mom to meet them at Henry's.

"Now wait just one minute!" interrupted Mr. Wong, "We almost lost you guys the last time. And with all those kids still trapped in the Tamer Colony, what if you guys get trapped too?"

"With all due respect Dad," said Henry affirmatively, "it's not really up to you. We've been chosen to be Tamers before. Jeri was our responsibility then and she still is now."

Janyu's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Well, I guess your parents and I will have to duke it out with you guys when they arrive here. In the meantime, I think I need to tell you guys something else about Thanatos."

Renamon's hackles bristled in surprise.

"You have also heard of it, Mr. Wong?"

Janyu adjusted his glasses and smiled once the familiar sense of nostalgia wafted into his brain.

"Why, yes. I know quite a bit about Thanatos because along with creating you digimon, my colleagues conceived it during our time at Palo Alto University."


	5. Chapter 5

**In this chapter, Janyu Wong discusses another, parallel history of "the Thanatos program". **

**Note: I was never really able to read the supplementary comic about the Monster Makers/Wild Bunch, so I took creative liberties with what went down in 1984 :p**

**Please, feel free to review!**

…**..**

Chapter 5

Henry's father was looking out of their apartment window as he attempted to recollect the story of how Thanatos came to be. He closed his eyes as he let the familiar sounds and images of university life flood his senses. It would be a difficult task, he realized. Not the technical aspect, no….that was not what eluded him. What was important about the project his colleagues had worked on was not about the command protocol or syntax that was used for creating such a program. No…what he hoped to stress to the young adults that sat in his living room was that the monsters who befriended them and the world that they remembered exploring as children were all the results of a dream that was eventually realized. The dream that a group of kids could spend their time now to create a world that future kids could cherish and love as much as the world they had grew up in.

…..

_Janyu Wong sat at his favorite desktop in the lab. It was the year 1984 and he could not wait until the rest of the Wild Bunch could seat themselves and start their secret meeting. Well…the meeting was not exactly off limits for outsiders, but the honest truth was that whenever they told people about what they were doing, they were often written off. It probably did not help their image that they held these meetings on Friday nights. Despite Palo Alto's University's rather prestigious image as a technical school, many students were still reluctant to spend their partying time in the computer lab._

_Wong noticed his colleague Gorou "Shibumi" Mizumo walk through the lab doors and greeted him. Before long, Rob "Dolphin" McCoy, Babel, Daisy, and Professor Aishuwarya arrived._

_ "Well guys, what's on the agenda for today?" asked Dolphin._

_Shibumi gently nudged Daisy and motioned with his eyes, asking for approval. The girl nodded and cleared her throat._

_ "Well, since the group finished up most the code for the "World project" for housing the monsters, Shibumi and I began investigating garbage collecting systems so that way we wouldn't run into the problems of memory depletion. In fact, we already have most of a program completed."_

_ "Really?" asked the professor, "That type of program is an excellent idea, but what made you think of it?"_

_Shibumi paused and then a smile crept across his visage._

_ "Well professor, it all started with your cyber defense class that I took back in sophomore year. You gave us a lesson about the 1970's D-Reaper project for the ECHELON division of the US Department of Defense. It was…. intriguing. Daisy and I figured that we might as well design a similar program for custodial purposes. We found some relevant documents and we started from there."_

_The student named Babel became alarmed at Shibumi's description of the program._

"_So um….Shibumi….how exactly does the program know to delete extraneous data? In fact…what kind of data is it deleting?"_

_Daisy snickered as she answered for her partner._

"_Well Babel, since you are a biology major and not a computer science major, I think that this concept might be a little out of your league so we will simplify it as much as possible. The program deletes both monster data and it will be a debugging program for deleting and fixing bits of non-functioning code. As for the monsters, it's programmed to delete older monsters once a certain quota is met, and then newer monsters are generated to keep the equilibrium."_

_Babel jumped out of his seat, enraged. _

_ "I knew it! You disabled the population control program that we all agreed would be in place. We agreed that the monsters will breed and generate their own offspring and their populations will be affected by programs that would control the birth rates and death rates. We discussed this and came to the conclusion that the monster program was going to simulate what happens to real populations of animals!"_

_The room was silent. The rest of the Wild Bunch were surprised that such a small hobby of theirs had turned into a heated debate._

_ "Babel, calm down," cooed Shibumi nonchalantly. "Our program is…similar."_

"_No. It's. Not. If you have a program that only deletes data on the basis of age, and then creates a balance in the population, then that does not teach children anything about population density! Do you have any idea how long Dolpin and I worked on approximating the monster world's carrying capacity? It took a month! How can we model breeding behavior off of this now? What's the point of asking me for my opinion on biological and ecological matters if you aren't going to use it?"_

"_I agree with Babel," said professor Aishuwarya, "We all made an agreement, and now, you two decide to undo more than a month of work? What is the reason for this?"_

"_It's simple," chirruped Daisy, "You guys voted for the monsters to operate on a breeding model, but Shibumi and I never supported it. We wanted to create our own model of the system and then see if you guys liked it better than Babel's."_

_Before Babel could snap at Daisy, Shibumi spoke first._

_ "With the utmost respect, Babel, your model is a good idea, but Daisy and I really don't think that children would like the idea of their monster friends…mating…and then dying for know reason other than to show them how the rules of Earth's ecology works. Kids would much rather have a fantasy world than one that resembled their own world too much. Children should be able to form a bond with their monster friend and then understand that all things must come to an end. If we just had their monsters die for no reason other than to show them "the real world", then I feel like we would be cheating them. We would be no better than the carnival attraction owners who give children sickly fish in return for their diligence and patience."_

_ "What's the point of even having the kids create a bond with the monsters if they all have the same personality?" muttered Janyu quietly._

_Once again, silence permeated the room. Once Janyu realized that his off-hand remark actually impacted the conversation, he became more aware of the stares that focused intensely at him._

_ "I believe that you may be right," remarked the Professor, "If we were to give the monsters distinct personalities, then we wouldn't even need a population density simulation because the monsters would be making their own choices and causing deaths and births as direct and indirect consequences of their choices."_

_ "What you are proposing," began Dolphin tiredly, "Is 'Artificial Intelligence'."_

_ "Precisely."_

_Dolphin McCoy laughed hysterically._

_ "With all due respect Professor, Artificial Intelligence is the stuff of science fiction for now. The advancements that are being made today are lightyears behind what we want our little digital pets to be capable of doing."_

_ "Not entirely true," corrected Shibumi, "Even most of the arcade games have some sort of artificial intelligence programmed into the enemies. Our problem is that we don't want our monsters all acting nonsensically, but we don't want them all acting in a uniform manner like the enemies in 'Space Invaders' or something."_

_ "Of course you spend all of your time playing games." teased Daisy._

_ "I think we should reach a compromise," announced the Professor, "Since we are going to program the monsters to have distinct personalities, it only makes sense for them to be able to breed and die. Also, the garbage collecting program will be used, but only for deleting the dead monster's data. It will not, repeat, NOT affect the population of the monsters, it will just work in the background of the world in order to preserve the server's memory. Does that sound good?"_

_ "Fine." _

_ "Good. Now all of you should get to work on changing the program to reflect these changes. Until then, I will have to investigate into our AI problem. Have a good weekend, and I will see you all in class."_

_The students all sat at their respective computers and began working on their personal projects for the monsters' world._

_Babel and McCoy sat behind Shibumi and Daisy to make sure that they were following orders._

_ "You know Babel," began Shibumi uneasily, "I'm sorry if I offended you with our changes to the program. To make up for it, I'm letting you name it whatever you want."_

_Babel's face lit up in excitement. He was one of those people who were quick to forget about their anger._

_ "Really? I can name it anything I want? Aww. Thanks Shibumi. Sorry if I acted like a jerk. Well let's see….the program deals with death….so how about 'Thanatos'?"_

_ "Why Thanatos?" asked Daisy cooly, "What in the world is it and why is it your first choice?"_

_ "Well, I'm kind of a mythology buff. Thanatos and Hypnos were twin demi-gods in Greek mythology. Thanatos governed death and Hypnos was in charge of sleep. What do you guys think?"_

_ "It sounds pretty cool," confirmed Janyu, "I think we should keep that."_

…..

Janyu Wong pivoted on his heel away from the window once he finished recalling his story. He noticed that all of the digimon except Renamon was asleep underneath blankets. The children however were focused with rapt attention.

"I guess my story was pretty hard to understand for our monster friends."

"Not for me." Remarked Renamon, "I don't understand all of the details you mentioned but it's…interesting to hear another side to the story. It's…strange to hear about how my home world was created."

"But Dad," asked Henry, "I know that the story was just about Thanatos, but I'm curious; how did the digimon get artificial intelligence?"

Janyu's eyes hardened as he remembered the frustration of years past.

"Well kids. As soon as we finished the programming for the breeding capabilities, the government became involved and took over the research. It turned out the Babel had tipped them off in exchange for money. We…didn't get to find out what was going to happen to the monster project. But then you brought home Terriermon. Then, I knew; the government must have perfected the AI."

"That explains why Hypnos and Yamaki knew about the digimon in the first place." noted Rika.

"And from the sounds of it," said Henry, "They used Babel's ideas regarding Thanatos and Hypnos when they named Yamaki's department."

Janyu cringed as he thought of his former friend Babel, talking extensively about his interests to the groups that he had sold his colleagues out to.

_That naïve fool! I can see him now; babbling about his stupid mythology to people who don't give a damn about him. If he had just opened his eyes and stopped being such an egotistical moron, he would have seen that he belonged with us! That he belonged with friends who accepted him for who he was. I wonder where he is now….is he content with himself?_

Takato turned his attention to the sleeping Guilmon whose head rested in his lap. He gently scratched Guilmon's webbed ears as he took all of the information in. While scratching Guilmon's ears, the dinosaur became so relaxed that he rolled over onto his stomach for Takato to scratch.

"Whoa boy," exclaimed Takato, "hard to believe this goofball was your leader."

Renamon chuckled at Takato's assumption.

"Actually, Matsuki, Impmon was our leader."

The humans looked at the drowsing Impmon in shock.

"But Renamon," asked Rika as she suppressed a gasp, "He's…so small. Remember what happened in the fight with Indramon? He got his butt handed to him."

"That was before he learned to control his pride," stated Renamon, "After living in the Digital World for a few months as an In-Training, he learned to put aside his arrogance. Once he had achieved that, he was able to think more clearly and strategize. He also became much more perceptive; he could finally see things for the way they were and he could no longer view it through wishful thinking."

"Well that's good." noted Henry.

"It was definitely helpful that he became an efficient leader, but his vigilance has a dark side," lamented Renamon, "his humanity has left him. Living in such a ruthless place made him forget about mercy or faith in others. It is not just him though, we were all affected in some way, but I think the blow was the biggest for him of all. We knew what it was liked to believe in the goodness of humans and other digimon even though we were only with you for a short time. Impmon never had the luxury of tamers or other digimon who displayed these traits to him until it was too late and he left for the Digital World."

….

Impmon traversed casually down the spotlighted streets of the Shinjuku district, much to the confusion of passer-byers. The sun had almost completely set and he found himself feeling apprehensive at the thought of meeting his two tamers. He had been walking for an hour after leaving Henry's apartment.

_ Why am I so worried about seeing some brats? They probably haven't changed anyways. Probably the same selfish twerps; always fighting over stupid shit._

Impmon paused as he came upon a familiar neighborhood. The purple imp quickly dashed to the front of a small house. His heart skipped a beat as he heard the doorknob of the front door turn. He immediately crept along the side of the house as a middle aged woman opened the door and left the house.

The small digimon sprinted to the end of the house where the children's room was located. He peered in through the window of what used to be the children's room and saw that only Ai must have still resided in the room due to the collection of stuffed animals and feminine objects. The nine-year-old girl was sitting on her bed, reading a book.

Impmon considered tapping on the glass to alert the girl of his presence until he saw a similarly aged boy enter the room.

"Ai, can I borrow your...," the boy stopped in mid-sentence once he noticed the purple creature outside of Ai's window.

"What is it Mako?" the girl looked in his direction and her eyes met those of the curious Impmon.

"I….I don't believe it!" the girl opened her window and the demon creature slipped in through the open window and leanded on her bed.

"Oh my gosh! We missed you so much, Impmon!" the girl hugged the small digimon as he fell limply against her. Mako began hugging him as tears filled his eyes.

"You guys…still remember me?" asked Impmon, amazed at their recognition of him.

"Of course we do, silly." said Mako, "we're always gonna remember you and Silky!"

Impmon pulled away from Mako in puzzlement.

"Silky? Who's that?"

Mako began fidgeting with his hands. The curious digimon examined the room further until he found a crayon drawing hung on the wall. It depicted a brown dog playing ball with two stick-figure children.

"After you left," began Ai, "we got really sad. Our parents wanted to cheer us up, so they got us a dog. But after a few years, Silky was hit by a car and...she died."

Impmon's throat felt dry. He tried picturing Ai and Mako's anguish over their lost pet.

Ai's hand began trembling as tears rolled down her eyes.

"It's your fault, Mako! We told you to tie her up in the yard, but you were too busy playing with your friends!"

The boy felt taken aback as tears began rolling down his eyes as well. This argument was an old one. No matter how many times their parents told them to let it go, Ai would ensure that he did not forget that she blamed him.

"It's not my _fault_! Stop saying it is!"

Impmon covered his hands over his ears.

_This isn't happening! This can't be happening. Why me? _

The previous confidence that Impmon had in his leadership skills seemed to fade away as soon as he stepped foot in the girl's room. He normally had no problem telling humans off. He even fantasized about doing it once he spent time in the Digital World and had nothing more to do but obsess over the human condition. But for some reason, watching these particular humans mistreat each other bothered him deeply.

"Kids…stop it. Just _stop_ it!" Impmon screamed while still holding his ears. He just could not take it anymore. These kids…these _humans_….he needed to escape from their constant hostility.

The digimon sprinted across the room to the bed and squeezed himself out of the window.

"Now look what you did, Ai! You scared him away again just like last time!"

"No I didn't, you stupid dork. I HATE you! It's your fault! Everything's your fault!"

Impmon could still hear them as he scurried into the woods. He did not care if he got lost, all he wanted was to escape those children. Finally, the small imp stopped at a tree and leaned against it while he regained his breath. Soon enough, tears began rolling down his cheeks.

_I thought they might've changed. I thought they grew up. But humans never grow up, do they? I'm the stupid one. I should've known that nothing would be different. Humans always fight. The always want to hurt each other….but why do I have to be that way, too? Why do all digimon have to be this way?_

The purple creature stopped sobbing once he heard a small rustling in the leaves. A small rabbit nibbled away at a piece of vegetation.

Upon seeing the small creature, Impmon felt seething rage.

_How DARE that little runt live. It's just too small. It can't survive like that! Just by living, it's an invitation to be killed!_

A fiery sphere emerged on Impmon's finger. He flicked it at the rabbit and watched the life leave its body. Impmon stalked slowly over to it and to witness its body dissolve. It amazed Impmon how even non-digital organisms seemed to be converted into data just by being attacked by a digimon. Impmon always guessed that it was because his powers somehow converted it into data. This observation suddenly gave him an idea. He allowed himself to absorb the data and he immediately felt better. No more crying over weak humans.

_This is why I have to be this way. Because they made me like this. Only strength is important._

Impmon heard another rabbit in the distance and shot a ball of flame in its direction. While watching the animal die, Impmon perversely thought if this was how Silky the dog looked to Ai and Mako when he was dying.

_ I just have to wonder. Were they really seeing their dog dying or were they seeing me? Were they just substituting that dog for me? Because they couldn't own me? _

Right as Impmon absorbed the rabbit's life force, he felt another perverse thought enter his mind. Killing this rabbit and taking its data strongly reminded him of when Lopmon died in her In-Training form and he began stealing her's. He cringed as his conscience reminded him of how Terriermon accused him of purposefully killing her.

_No! It wasn't like that. I didn't kill her. It was HER fault! She was stupid enough to hit him when she was right in his face! She was too stupid to live! She would've died anyway! She was weak. It…it was an accident waiting to happen._

Impmon felt another sob coming along, but instead channeled it into a large sphere of fire. He jumped to the top of a tree branch and searched for more prey. He finally found the warren that the other rabbits presumably belonged to and raced along the canopy, honing in on his kill.

….

It was a solemn evening at the Wong residence. Parents hugged and kissed their children goodbye. Jeri's parents arrived later than expected; partly due to the shame they felt regarding what happened to their daughter.

Takato's parents handed him his old pair of goggles, knowing how symbolic it was to him. Takato proudly adorned the goggles as he hugged his parents farewell.

"Rika, I know that you'll be fine, dear," Rika's grandmother held her tightly as she stroked her hair lovingly.

"It's good that you're not too worried, grandma."

"How can you be so calm about this, mom?" Rika's mother became hysterical as she pleaded with the elderly matron to understand why her teenaged daughter should stay. Tears lined her cheeks as she grabbed Rika's shoulders.

"You don't even have to leave, honey. This is not your task—this is Takato's."

Rika fought off her mother's smothering but held her hands instead.

"Mom, you don't understand, do you? Takato is my friend and…so is Jeri. The truth is that we all feel responsible for Jeri's health and we want to correct our mistake. Jeri is very fragile right now and the problem with her and Leomon is too big for just Takato and Guilmon to handle. We are all going—right guys?"

Henry nodded in approval as he stopped hugging his parents to grab the first aid bag that his mother recommended they take.

Calumon opened his ears and cocked them towards the door.

"Don't leave too soon, guys. I think Impmon came back. But…he sounds different."

"How can he sound different?" asked Terriermon.

A tired looking Beelzemon entered the room to the shock of the parents.

"Beelzemon….how did you digivolve?" Renamon appeared from the dark hallway to greet him.

Beelzemon shuddered as he remembered how many small animals he had to kill in order to finally change in such a short amount of time. His tail flicked back and forth in uneasiness as he felt the immediate stare of the parents in the room.

"It's…not really important. So when are the brats ready to leave?"

The human trio and their digimon stood up in front of the television while Henry's father ran the program. Beelzemon took this as his cue and took his place near Renamon.

"You know what to do, Dad?" asked Henry tentatively.

"Yes. I already ran it, but I'm leaving the fields blank. That way, the portal will be opened without sucking the digimon back in here. But, I have a confession to make, Henry."

"What, Dad?"

"Your parents and I talked about it and it's been decided. We are giving you guys until the first week before school starts to find Jeri. If you can't bring her back by then, then we will search for your digimon and bring you guys back to this world."

"But Dad—,"

"No, son. We can't let you kids ruin your lives and studies looking for someone who doesn't want to be found. We just won't have it. Now the portal is ready. Goodbye and good luck."

While linking arm and arm to each other, each Tamer and digimon stepped into the television screen and disappeared into the blackness.

"Good luck, kids," Yelled Jeri's parents, "Please find her for us."

"So that's it?" asked Takato's mother, "We just wait?"

"Those kids survived in that place when they were much younger," said Rika's grandmother optimistically, "I think we just need to have some faith. I have a feeling they'll be alright."

"Yes…" sighed Mrs. Wong as she clutched Janyu's hand. "We have a good son on our hands."

"We do," affirmed Janyu, "But the Digital World they traveled to before was an entirely different case. Now, they have to deal with an entire group of who-knows-how-many-kids. It…it could be—,"

"Like Lord of the Flies…" finished Jeri's father.

Mrs. Wong fought back tears and ran to compose herself in her hallway. She found Suzie in the hallway doing the same thing. The two hugged each other tightly as they hoped for the best.

…

**Author's Note: **

**Some people might be wondering how a rabbit could even be converted into data. **

**Don't ask me! **

**In the series premiere when Guilmon arrived, he shot a pyro sphere at a rat and he absorbed the rat's "data". I am dead serious. If you still don't believe me, I'm sure that there is a video of it on Youtube.**

**Also, it might sound weird that I connected the D-Reaper to a US DoDT project, but according to Wikipedia, D-Reaper is in fact related to an actual US DoDT program from the 1970s (then again, it is Wikipedia…).**

"**I did not hit her. I did NAAAAHT. Oh hai, Mark."**

—**Johnny**

**Feel free to review!**

**NOTE: SORRY IF THERE ARE ANY REVIEW ERRORS (MISSING, ETC.) HAD ISSUES WITH DOC MANAGER WHILE REPLACING CHAPTERS.**


	6. Chapter 6

Part II: The Council

Chapter 6

**Author's note: **

In the review section, a reader brought up some complaints and corrections about the story (I think you all should be able to find the review pretty easily). In case any of you have the same questions, here are the answers.

**Thanks for the corrections (I specifically asked for the help, so thanks), but I think there are some things I need to sort out.**

1) You are right, I did change some of the backstories. I like to play with continuity. I'd like to think that only true fans of the series read fan-fiction, and so, any true fan also knows all of the backstories. In other words, (most of) it was intentional.

2) I am aware of the fact that Hypnos had nothing to do with the MonsterMakers. Again, I changed the backstory to suit my version of the story (I guess this should be called AU). I chose to "retcon" Hypnos into the story to match the whole "Hynos"/"Thanatos" motif (read up on the "Death of Sarpedon" myth, if you are into mythology). According to some sources out there, the references to Hypnos and Juggernaut were actually supposed to be homages to H.P. Lovecraft. I have not read any of H.P. Lovecraft's works, so I cannot verify if that is fact or fiction, but yes, I did that on purpose.

3)Thanks for telling me about the whole "death"vs."divorce" issue. I don't really know how I possibly could have messed that up, but somehow I managed to do it.

4)I am aware of the fact that the so-called "Primary Village" was never referred to in Tamers. (Refer to bullet 1).

5) I am also aware of the subtext of Lord of The Flies and the themes it dealt with (I too, have read it). However, for better or worse, it is regarded by the majority of Popular Culture as being about kids left on their own. It is not exactly the most-in-depth view of the book and that is why I had a character comment on it in a way that would be typical of most people who do not know much about it and only know of it in a superficial way. As a matter of fact, I was going to have the characters muse about their roles from their past and how they differ from their present situation (I genuinely am fascinated with some fields of sociology and psychology that deal with the individual's sense of self and labels (in-groups, out-groups, etc). In general, the reference does work, but only superficially (which was what I intended).

6) I own a copy of the first few episodes of VHS and in the scene, it depicts Guilmon first, sensing the rat, then blowing a Pyro-sphere at the rat, then the scene turns away to Takato covering his eyes and with particles that resemble free-floating "data". I agree with you that smoke is depicted rising from the melted pipe, however the smoke is very different in appearance from the white-is specks we see floating away. This scene implies that at least Guilmon is able to absorb data from other organisms. The scene is not very explicit, but the rat's death is still implied.

Thanks for the feedback. I suppose that I will re-upload the corrected chapters. I think the death will actually work pretty well with the plot anyway.

And as of this notice, I have added an AU warning to the summary and I have fixed the chapter with death/divorce continuity issue.

Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry about the rather long hiatus (as well as for the short chapter I uploaded). I had to take a break from the story to focus on finals among other things (What can I say? This is a hobby after all!)

Part II: The Council

Chapter 6

Jeri's body bobbed and drifted farther away from Leomon. They were in what Leomon called "The Download Space" and Jeri saw no hint of her beloved monster leaving it anytime soon. He was facing with his back away from her while his large hands manipulated an interconnected cluster of light. Jeri studied the "space". Instead of being black with small stars like outer space, the environment was a piercing red tone with clusters of various colors similar to the one that Leomon was using. These clusters were various sizes and colors: they ranged from as small as Jeri's eyes and a crimson as a pomegranate to as large as a planetarium's dome and as dull blue as the hue around them.

"Leomon," the girl moaned tiredly, "when will you be done? When can we play?"

The lion looked over his shoulder at the floating girl and promptly returned back to his work.

"Actually…I have just finished."

It did not take long for Rika to come to her senses. Even the air of the digital world was noticeably different from Earth's. She rubbed her eyes and came to her feet before she smoothed her shoulder-length hair and called out for Renamon. It was dark in the Digital World and she needed to find the others.

_That's weird, _she thought as she kicked the rocks around her feet, _We all came in together, so why didn't we end up in the same place?_

"Hey RIKA!" came a familiar yell. Rika looked up from the pebbles and saw the goggle-headed boy that she knew so well. At his side was Guilmon and Henry. Terriermon and Impmon were walking on opposite sides of Henry in a pathetic attempt to avoid speaking to each other. Renamon quickly appeared from the nearby jungle.

Takato fixed his goggles over his eyes to protect them from the strong winds and breathed in the nostalgia from years past. He was ready for another adventure.

"There," said Henry as he pointed to a fortress-like structure in the distance, "That was it, right guys?"

"But Henry," screamed Terriermon over the wind, "Do you see that? It's…digimon! And they are coming in our direction!"

The group strained their eyes until they found fast moving figures headed towards them.

"Well guys," said Rika determinedly, "Let's not just wait around for them. They are most likely from the colony which means that we need to contact them anyway so we can explain the situation with Jeri. Maybe they are in charge or something. I can't see a better opportunity than now."

Renamon cocked her hears and quickly scanned the group. She was scanning the group for Beelzemon when she felt a tap on her shoulder. The dark creature grinned at her jumpiness and stalked ahead of her. The truth was that he was using his cockiness to shake off the memories that flooded his head after they returned to this Digital World.

One month ago…

_The small imp digimon stumbled and cursed as he stomped his way through a thick forest near his party's cave. The sun was setting and the many creatures of the day was scrambling to find refuge from the impending night. He was filthy and covered in bruises and scrapes from absent-mindedly falling off of tree branches and running into low vegetation._

"_Why can't I focus? What's wrong with me? I can't do anything without thinking about…."_

_At that moment, Impmon stopped in his tracks as he saw what he had been plaguing his mind for so long. The diminutive mon ducked low in the thick brush to avoid being noticed by his obsession. After a few seconds, he stopped tensing and realized that he could loosen his guard._

_Before him lay Renamon curled in a soft yellow ball. Her lithe body rose and sank in as she breathed softly. _

"_Good," Impmon sighed, "she's asleep. I'm just going to stay here and protect her….besides, she knows that it's too dangerous to be sleeping this far away from the cave."_

_As Impmon watched her slumber, he began to feel strong pains in his lower body. They were the same pains that had been eating away at him for the past year._

"_No! Not now….I can't be doing this….I can't be thinking this about her."_

"_Impmon? Is that you? I can hear you…."_

"_Shit! Dammit." Impmon loudly cursed himself as he walked away from the bushes towards the vulpine digimon._

"_Yeah, that's me…why are you out here anyway?" Impmon walked over to where Renamon was still reclining._

"_I don't know Impy…I just…feel really weird" Renamon giggled._

"_Impy?" Impmon was confused at her playfulness…. but his interest was definitely piqued._

"_I just…I dunnoo…" she slurred, "I just ate that…red and….and spotted fruit over there...and now I'm like….I'm like this…haha."_

_Impmon inspected the said fruit and threw the rind back onto the ground once he realized what it was._

"_Renamon…you're not supposed to eat that it….it makes you-."_

"_Lazy?" chirruped Renamon as she idly played with her tail._

"_Well….yeah..and…"_

"_Forgetful?"_

"_Yes, and…"_

"_Lustful?"_

_The last word stopped Impmon dead in his tracks. His mouth suddenly became dry as he realized just how intoxicated she was._

_Renamon outstretched her arms as she coaxed him towards her._

"_Please, Impmon….I really want this….I want you."_

_Impmon knew it was wrong, but he felt as if his legs were autonomous as he wandered over to her. Once he had approached her, he felt Renamon's paws stroke his head._

"_Aww. You're so cute, Impmon!"_

"_Please," murmered Impmon as he tried to enjoy this moment as best as he could, "please don't call me that."_

"_But Impy, you are! I mean….you're cute in this fform….bbut in your other form, well…. I wouldn't need to be this out of it…to…be with you." _

_The imp dashed out of her grasp and tore through the woods. He stopped at an odd-looking tree and began ripping off pieces of its red fruit. The purple mon held the strange fruit in his hands as he absorbed what had just happened. Before he could feel the tears escape his heavy eyes, he began stuffing his face with as much of its red flesh as he could._

"_I don't want to remember this…I shouldn't have to…why me? Why am I like this?"_

_Approximately half an hour later, the diminutive mon began drowsing to sleep. He was happy that his dreams were so vivid; it was then and only then that he was allowed to sate his lust._

**End of chapter 6**


	7. Story update

Story update

I am sorry to say that I will not be continuing this story for the time being.

As you may have noticed, my writing and updating has been getting sloppier. When I first started the story, I had just finished watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and reviewing the Digimon Tamers series. At that point, I had many ideas that I tried to flesh out in my writing. I wrote several chapters ahead of time and made sure to cross-reference information for errors, keeping track of multiple characters, and re-read them until all of the spelling errors and timing kinks were ironed out.

Over time, I began losing interest in the series as a whole as I began forgetting major inspirations for the series and I began preparing for my final exams, jobs, etc.

Also, as I became more involved with film production and animation; I became more dependent on relying on storyboards and animatics for visualizing long narratives-something that frankly, I will not do for a fanfic.

Over time writing became a chore. What was once a steady flow of ideas and updating transformed into a hiatus that spanned months. what was once a relatively fluid process became stale and uninteresting. All of a sudden I started having ideas for smaller fanfic stories-stories that I am afraid will rot away if I spend too much time on this one.

Lately, I will be devoting more time to personal film treatments and brushing up on my animation skills and small fanfics rather than writing long fanfics. I had originally planned this story to be around the length of a novel, but as of now it has become too difficult to churn out a single chapter. I have some ideas for smaller fanfics in the future, but I think that this story was too ambitious for me to try at this point.

So that's it. The story is now on hiatus until I feel inspired enough to continue, however every day it starts to look like I will most likely never finish it.

Some reviewers have said that this is a pretty interesting concept. If you feel strongly that the story should be continued and you have some really good ideas then go ahead and do it! I'm serious: have fun with it….I know I won't. Just be sure to give credit where credit is due.

All in all, I am sorry for putting this story on hold-I sure hate it when authors do that. But I figured that it is better to be honest with you guys rather than to stall and keep people waiting for something that won't happen.

So again, sorry for the inconvenience. Maybe I will write a better, more developed story than this one in the future.


End file.
